BaL 4.05.24 - Ravel: Piano concerto for the left hand

[Pulcinella]

1500
Building a Library

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

Despite having lost his right arm fighting on the Russian front during World War I, Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein was determined to continue his concert career. To that end he commissioned concertos from Richard Strauss, Franz Schmidt, Korngold, Britten and Prokofiev and Ravel.

To Strauss, Wittgenstein complained that he'd orchestrated too heavily, and he returned Prokofiev's concerto saying he didn't understand it and wasn't going to play it. When he took issue with Ravel's long opening cadenza ('If I wanted to play without the orchestra, I wouldn’t have commissioned a concerto!'), Ravel refused to change anything and Wittgenstein played the concerto as written at its 1932 premiere in Vienna.

It's a dark, compelling, wonderfully orchestrated work in one movement – and a dazzling display of Ravel's huge resourcefulness and skill in managing the solo part which always seems too impossibly rich and virtuosic to emanate from just one hand.

Presto listing (140 entries) here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/24748--ravel-piano-concerto-in-d-major-for-the-left-hand/browse

[Pulcinella]

Last on BaL: 07/05/2005 (reviewer Martin Cotton)

Top recommendation:

Krystian Zimerman (piano), London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (conductor) (recorded 1996)
DG 449 213-2 (CD)

Also recommended:

Samson Francois (piano), Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, Andre Cluytens (conductor) (recorded 1959)
EMI 566905-2 (CD)

[oliver sudden]

There is a magnificent video recording of François (Frémaux conducting) which I would recommend to all and sundry. It occasionally appears on YouTube…

There is also some video of Wittgenstein playing two solo excerpts, which is of great historical interest but musically less edifying.

[smittims]

Yes, I think there's debate about just how good a pianist Wittgenstein actually was, quite apart from our debt to him for commissioning some fine music.

Alexander Tharaud gave a magnificent performance at the 2014 Proms with Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, , which was televised and may turn up as a video.

I was pleased to see Samson Francois still regarded; I used to have it on a Classics for Pleasure LP. . I think my own favourites remain Julius Katchen (one of his last recordings, with Istvan Kertesz and the LSO) and Monique Haas on DG.

[vinteuil]

Among others I have the 1982 Leon Fleisher with the Baltimore Symphony under Sergiu Commissiona
.

[Barbirollians]

Beroff/Abbado

[richardfinegold]

Wittgenstein sounds like a very difficult character, but Pianists who sustained injuries to their right hand owe him a debt for having commissioned works. There also is a Hindemith work that came to light a few years ago that Wittgenstein chose not to perform.
I obtained the Boulez/Zimmerman a few years ago as part of a large Boulez box. It’s the only one that I have listened to since. I listed the conductor first because the Pianist is fine, I guess, but the sound world around him, the atmosphere, is unlike other recordings and performances that I have encountered.

[oliver sudden]

I was pleased to see Samson Francois still regarded;

One of my favourite pianists on record! He more or less owns this piece for me.

There’s a new edition of the piece which removes a bar from the last page. (One of the ‘March’ bars.) Not such a fan of that to be honest. I would have thought Ravel would have had ample opportunity to remove it himself if he didn’t want it there…

[Cockney Sparrow]

There is a magnificent video recording of François (Frémaux conducting) which I would recommend to all and sundry. It occasionally appears on YouTube…......

I see its on Medici TV - "reserved for premium users..." . No doubt the reason it disappears from Y Tube.

[Pulcinella]

Several versions on the shelves here.

Fowke/LPO/Baudo
Entrement/Cleveland O/Boulez
Zimerman/Cleveland O/Boulez
François/Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Cluytens
Rogé/Montreal SO/Dutoit
Collard/ONF/Maazel
Ciccolini/O de Paris/Martinon
Février/Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Munch
Gavrilov/LSO/Rattle

There is no BBC MM CD recording.

Of more recent recordings that I've listened to, I would say that
Cédric Tiberghien, Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
should certainly be in the running.

[smittims]

One thing that's always intrigued me: would it be considered cheating to play it with two hands? I imagine that if I were a pianist I'd find it a strain to use one arm continually with the other idle.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not one of my favourite Ravel works - and neither in the G major, I have to say, so I'm bowing out on this one. By the way, the Schmidt is not actually a piano concerto, but a Regerish set of variations for piano and orchestra of 1930 on a theme of Beethoven.

[Ein Heldenleben]

One thing that's always intrigued me: would it be considered cheating to play it with two hands? I imagine that if I were a pianist I'd find it a strain to use one arm continually with the other idle.

Yes it would be considered cheating. More importantly it wouldn’t create the musical effect Ravel was after. For example the thumb usually plays the melody in the left hand producing a different effect to than the right hand little finger would.
,

[oliver sudden]

One thing that's always intrigued me: would it be considered cheating to play it with two hands? I imagine that if I were a pianist I'd find it a strain to use one arm continually with the other idle.

Cortot did exactly that! Ravel tried to forbid him but to no avail.

[duncan]

By the way, the Schmidt is not actually a piano concerto, but a Regerish set of variations for piano and orchestra of 1930 on a theme of Beethoven.

Likewise the Britten, billed as a Diversions for Piano and Orchestra.

Needless to say, Wittgenstein asked for changes and he and the composer fell out. Anticipating Taylor Swift by 70 years, Britten revised it in 1950 making the original obsolete compared to the newer Ben's Version*. This side-stepped Wittgenstein's exclusive performing rights opening the piece for all to perform.

I love the Ravel and it's a work that has had many good recordings so look forward to this BaL.

(*well it should be called this)